When: Tours several times a day on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays. VIP tour with special tastings, $500 for 10-30 people; reserve up to two weeks in advance by emailing Kristin.forsch@stranahans.com.

Whether you were a courageous Black Friday shopping athlete or a Cyber Monday office chair potato, chances are you still have some gifts to buy, some entertaining to do and would also like to work in a little "me time," whether or not you deign to call it that.

We have a solution. Two words: Local liquor.

While the phrase "distillery to table" doesn't exactly trip off the tongue, you get the idea. Just as it's now possible to see the farm on which your food is grown, in some instances you can also see where your favorite liquor is distilled. You can take a tour, taste the liquors offered, buy a bottle or two for gifts or entertaining and often pick up some cocktail recipes, as well.

Not to denigrate the economy -- supporting experience of fighting your way through stressed mall shoppers, but wouldn't you just as soon do your part to end the economic slowdown by spending a mellow, pleasurable afternoon?

Even if you don't have time for touring, most local liquor stores stock the products of Colorado distilleries, which means you can make some impressive drinks in your own home. Ever since Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey got its start in 2004, the micro-distillery movement in the state has been growing.

"I think there's lots of people doing some really cool stuff," says Bryan Dayton, co-owner of Oak at Fourteenth in Boulder, who is in charge of the restaurant's well-regarded cocktail program.

He's particularly fond of Denver-based Leopold Bros.' offerings, those of Peak Spirits, an organic distillery based in Hotchkiss, and Stranahan's. For bartenders such as Dayton, the variety of offerings means cocktails can rely on spirits that have their own special properties. For example, he makes a cocktail with Leopold's Maryland-Style Rye Whiskey, its Three Pins Alpine Herbal Liqueur, a little bit of honey and the restaurant's house-made bitters.

Dayton also likes to make eggnog. While it's not for everyone, since raw eggs can be risky for those with compromised immune systems, he says fresh eggnog with dark rum is an amazing holiday drink. Dayton also suggests experimenting with winter cocktails using fig jam or quince paste to sweeten and adding warm spices such as nutmeg.

If you're in the tour mode, Boulder County offers three opportunities: Boulder Distillery, which makes 303 Vodka and Whiskey; Roundhouse Gin, which makes gin, an aged gin similar to whiskey, and a coffee liqueur called Coretto, and newly opened Spirit Hound Distillery in Lyons, which makes vodka, gin and Richardo's Decaf Coffee Liqueur. All three offer tours, as do some distilleries in Denver and Loveland.

At Roundhouse, tours are on a drop-in basis on certain days, and the tasting room is relatively bare bones with a small bar and tables. President Ted Palmer says about 50 people take the tour every week. In addition to the brewery's gin, aged gin and coffee liqueur, he offers a pumpkin pie liqueur in the tasting room. The company will be bottling that in larger batches next year, when it will be available for sale. As you might expect, it goes well with cream, Palmer says.

Roundhouse has undergone some changes since it was started by Alex Nelson, who now has a business interest in the distillery but is not involved in day-to-day operations. Nelson's gin was extremely strong on licorice flavor, but the current reformulated Roundhouse gin is a more balanced mix of botanicals. Palmer describes it as a western-style gin, meaning it has as low a juniper content as possible while still meeting the legal definition of gin.

"It's subtle," he says, pointing out it's not like juniper-heavy English-style gins, the flavor of which he describes as "like licking a pine tree."

The distillery's aged gin spends a few months in an oak barrel, which gives it a whiskey-like flavor but with the floral notes of gin. Palmer calls it "ginskey." Roundhouse's Coretto Coffee Liqueur is much lighter than Kahlua and uses coffee from Unseen Bean in Boulder.

Boulder Distillery is home to 303 Vodka and 303 Whiskey, both made with potatoes mostly from Colorado. Its tasting room has on display the steamer trunk where owner Steve Viezbicke found his Polish grandfather's recipe for potato vodka, which he tinkered with to make 303 Vodka.

The tasting room features the vodka and whiskey and also sells infused versions that change with the season. Currently that includes the whiskey infused with cinnamon, a cranberry-lime vodka and also a vodka infused with dried cherries, raisins, clove and pears, which Brandy Viezbicke, Steve's wife, calls Christmas blend.

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